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When the work-group environment first decided to be moved to a Domain environment only cost effecting solution was to go for SBS installation that can serve everything in one box.

This was serving its purpose fine for the first years where number of users was only 8 , not too big SQL data and no need for an additional roles. As the business grew SBS started to lack in every terms such as performance , scaling , management and so on.

The challenge was to move SBS without disturbing end user services & daily business operations to a Windows Domain environment where virtual servers powering SQL, Exchange , DHCP & DNS and File services.

We started off moving SQL data that is highly valuable for property management & landlord information for daily business needs.

Than File shares & Roaming Profiles is moved to a new file server with WSUS service for critical updates.

After installing Exchange 2010 , all mailboxes and client access roles have been moved to new one , port redirection has been reconfigured for SMTP traffic to point new IP , current SSL certificate has been moved and system monitored for a week.

After removing 2010 from SBS box , removing th CA role was a necessity with revoking all published certificates , once this was done , FSMO roles has been moved to new DCs , and system has been monitored for two weeks .

SBS , as per its design should hold the FSMO roles , once this is moved away box will start to reboot itself after 21 days , so planning here is the key.

Points not to be missed during this migration :

- Exchange 2007 needs to have SP3 , otherwise 2010 installation will NOT continue ,
- make sure your auto discover fqdn matches with your certificate otherwise you are likely to have certificate errors
- Once mailboxes are moved , make sure users are connecting to the correct exchange servers,
- Remeber the update the domain / schema with dcpromo for DC updates.
- Always move one role at a time , monitor / take backup of your previous state.
- Once your FSMO roles is moved , uninstall AD role from server , take off the domain and shutdown.